Jacob..Im probably the last one to give any ideas on accuracy, but thought I would share with you something Randy Wright had in his book on shooting PP bullets.
He uses a barrel clamp to mitigate torque. He stresses that the "flex" that is inherent in a two piece stock is magnified by the downward pressure of our cheek. Because  we can never apply that downward pressure at the same rate we get vertical stringing. He advocates sitting as nearly upright as possible and pulling the buttstock firmly straight  back into the shoulder with as little cheek pressure as possible. It appears in the book that he has a sandbag under the butt and his hand pushing the stock back.

I would have to assume from that method that he lets it go into "free recoil"...I know the muzzle of my rifle leaps into the air, but I assume that by the time it does the bullet is long gone. Dont know if that helps any..
Wes

Also stock design is a big consideration.  If it is the original sporter or schuetzen style, you will probably have to hold onto it to get it to group.  With a more modern bench style stock that "rides the bags" well, free recoil works with calibers that are sufficiently mild to not clobber you when they get a running start.  I use FR with my Peregrine (dedicated) bench gun in .32-357, but hold everything else.  YMMV, of course!

Froggie

Bottom line is you have to control the rifle by whatever methods necessary, do not let the rifle control you, The only way I know how to achieve this is practice, practice, practice. I can guarantee you that you will not just wake up one morning and start shooting small groups and start climbing to the top of the list.

J.Louis

Schuetzendave wrote on Mar 10^th, 2008 at 11:25pm:


Now there's a phrase that a couple of the gun show dealers in my area need to have branded on their foreheads!

The last show I was at had a total of 3 1885's. One was a nicely put together long range style BPCR gun that was reputed to shoot well indeed, priced at around $2600 IIRC, and the other two were "original" and "collectible" 38-55 Sporter looking guns that were priced at $2500 each, thank you very much. Wow!

Bores like sewer pipes, extractors that looked like "the boy" cut the notch for them with his splitting wedge and the largest hammer he could swing, and general condition that made one wonder if they had been towed there behind a truck, rather than in it. 

Are those collectible anywhere? I know I'd be ashamed to show them to anyone, without provenance, like maybe that they were dug up out of Custers outhouse site, or something like that... 

Sorry. I'll stop ranting now.

That phrase got me going...

  Cheers
  Trev

jake,

  You've got the right idea in that you need to make the rear bag as solid/unmoving as possible. The hot shot bench shooters will tell you that you only move the front rest for any adjustments needed. I've found this to be true.

  Some of the guys in our club make up a short-sided box that the bag sits in and the box is clamped to the table.

  For the front of the gun I use a "sled", or Pope rest, that has a notch in that fits a peg on the front rest. This acts as a "return to battery", and is another important point. Your set-up should be such that when the gun returns to battery the crosshairs should be centered up, or at the least need very little adjustment to bring them in line. I've found that if you have to move th e rear bag at all the next shot is not going to be in the group, IF you've got a small one going. 

  Depending on the caliber...... .32 and below...... I, and most of the shooters I know, use free recoil or a very light cheek pressure. Calibers larger than .32 I've found require some sort of cheek & grip pressure. The idea is not to control the gun.... you can't... but to guide it. A "sled" helps a lot but there is enuf torque that the right leg will rise off the front pad. But it does help in realigning the sights.... irons especially.... and of course allows a return to battery exactly as the last shot was. 

  The most important point in all this is that each gun is slightly different and you have to find out what your gun likes.